CJ Nelson stats, 2026
Ball State (3–5, Mid-American). Wide receiver. 2026 season, games through Oct 24, 2026.
CJ Nelson is a wide receiver for Ball State (3–5). Among receivers and tight ends this season he's 472nd in catches (12), 600th in receiving yards (100), 605th in explosive catches (16+ yards) (1), in 5 games.
Bio
Who is CJ Nelson?
- Position
- Wide receiver
- Class
- Senior
- Height
- 5-11
- Weight
- 180 pounds
- Number
- No. 7
- Hometown
- North Richland Hills, TX
- High school
- Richland (North Richland Hills, TX)
- Recruiting
- 3-star, No. 774 in the 2022 class, signed with Houston
- Transfers
- Eastern Illinois to Ball State (2026)
From the 2026 roster, the 247Sports recruiting composite and the transfer portal, all via CollegeFootballData.com.
The season
CJ Nelson's receiving stats
He's 472nd of 682 receivers and tight ends in catches (12) and 600th of 682 receivers and tight ends in receiving yards (100).
| Stat | Season | National rank |
|---|---|---|
| Receiving yards | 100 | 600th of 682 |
| Catches | 12 | 472nd of 682 |
| Yards per catch | 8.3 | 634th of 675 |
The season
CJ Nelson's receiving efficiency and big plays
He's 605th of 657 receivers and tight ends in explosive catches (16+ yards) (1).
| Stat | Season | National rank |
|---|---|---|
| Explosive catches (16+ yards) | 1 | 605th of 657 |
Ranks are among every FBS receivers and tight end with the stat this season. Rates need a minimum sample (50 dropbacks for passing rates, 20 carries, 8 catches). From the play-by-play.
Charts
How does CJ Nelson compare, in charts?
Career
CJ Nelson's career stats
| Season | Team | Catches | Rec yds | Yds/catch | Rec TD | Rush yds |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2022 | Houston | 2 | 7 | 3.5 | 0 | — |
| 2024 | Eastern Illinois | 21 | 292 | 13.9 | 1 | 5 |
| 2025 | Eastern Illinois | 22 | 393 | 17.9 | 3 | 7 |
| 2026 | Ball State | 12 | 100 | 8.3 | 0 | 10 |
| Career | 57 | 792 | 13.9 | 4 | 22 |
Past seasons (back to 2022) from CollegeFootballData.com; 2026 from the play-by-play, games through Oct 24, 2026.
By school
How did CJ Nelson do at Houston, Eastern Illinois and Ball State?
Eastern Illinois (2024–2025) is where he's been best: his best numbers at any school on all 3 of the rates below. That's 15.9 yards a catch (8.3 at Ball State), 16+ yard gains on 41.0% of his catches (8.3%) and touchdowns on 9.3% of his catches (0.0%). His weakest stretch was Ball State this season: 8.3 yards a catch and 16+ yard gains on 8.3% of his catches. His biggest season for receiving yards was 2025 at Eastern Illinois, with 393. The Ball State numbers are 2026 so far, through Oct 24, 2026. The rates compare fairly with his other seasons; the totals are still growing.
| School | Seasons | Catches | Rec yds | Yds/catch | Rec TD | Rush yds | Explosive catches |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Houston | 2022 | 2 | 7 | 3.5 | 0 | — | — |
| Eastern Illinois | 2024–2025 | 43 | 685 | 15.9 | 4 | 12 | 41.0% |
| Ball State | 2026 (so far) | 12 | 100 | 8.3 | 0 | 10 | 8.3% |
* 2026 so far, through Oct 24, 2026.
Totals for his seasons at each school; rates worked out from those totals. Success and explosive rates count every play; EPA per play leaves out garbage time. Rates need the same minimum sample as the season stats.
Advanced
CJ Nelson's advanced stats by season
| Season | Team | EPA/play | Pass EPA/play | Rush EPA/play | Explosive catches | Total EPA | Usage |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2022 | Houston | -0.23 | -0.23 | — | — | -0.5 | 3% |
| 2024 | Eastern Illinois | +1.03 | +1.08 | +0.07 | 40.0% | 20.6 | 5% |
| 2025 | Eastern Illinois | +0.80 | +0.89 | -0.12 | 42.1% | 26.4 | 8% |
| 2026 | Ball State | +0.30 | +0.27 | +0.88 | 8.3% | 5.4 | 5% |
EPA per play is the expected points a player adds on each of his plays (0 is average; glossary). Success means the play stayed on schedule: half the yards to go on first down, 70% on second, all of them on third or fourth. Explosive means a run of 12+ yards or a completion of 16+, as a share of his throws, carries or catches. Usage is the share of his team's plays that went to him. EPA and usage leave out garbage time; success and explosive rates count every play. From CollegeFootballData.com and cfbfastR.
Game log
CJ Nelson's game log, 2026
| Week | Opponent | Result | Receiving yards | Catches | Receiving TDs | Explosive catches (16+ yards) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | at Ohio State | L 3–56 | 8 | 1 | 0 | 0 |
| 2 | vs. Stony Brook | W 41–17 | 6 | 1 | 0 | 0 |
| 6 | at Northwestern | L 14–45 | 20 | 3 | 0 | 0 |
| 7 | at Bowling Green | W 32–31 | 59 | 6 | 0 | 1 |
| 8 | vs. Sacramento State | W 34–17 | 7 | 1 | 0 | 0 |
FAQ
Questions about CJ Nelson
What position does CJ Nelson play?
CJ Nelson plays wide receiver for Ball State, which is 3–5 this season.
Where has CJ Nelson played?
Houston (2022), Eastern Illinois (2024–2025) and Ball State (2026).
Where is CJ Nelson from, and what year is he?
CJ Nelson is a senior wide receiver for Ball State, listed at 5-11 and 180 pounds, from North Richland Hills, TX.
How tall is CJ Nelson, and how much does he weigh?
CJ Nelson is listed at 5-11 and 180 pounds on Ball State's 2026 roster.
What year is CJ Nelson?
CJ Nelson is a senior, from the 2022 recruiting class.
What are CJ Nelson's career stats?
Over 4 seasons (2022–2026), CJ Nelson has 57 catches for 792 yards and 4 touchdowns.
Who does CJ Nelson play for?
Ball State (3–5, Mid-American), where he plays wide receiver and wears No. 7.
Is CJ Nelson eligible for the NFL Draft?
Yes. Players can enter the NFL Draft three years after high school, and CJ Nelson was in the 2022 class, so he's eligible for the 2027 draft.
How did CJ Nelson play in his last game?
Week 8 vs. Sacramento State: 7 receiving yards, 1 catch. Ball State won 34–17.
Where did CJ Nelson go to high school?
Richland (North Richland Hills, TX). He was a 3-star recruit, No. 774 in the 2022 class, signed with Houston.
Is CJ Nelson a transfer?
Yes. He transferred from Eastern Illinois to Ball State (2026).
What are CJ Nelson's stats this season?
100 receiving yards, 12 catches, 8.3 yards per catch, 1 explosive catches (16+ yards) in 5 games, through Oct 24, 2026.
How does CJ Nelson rank nationally?
Among FBS receivers and tight ends: 472nd of 682 in catches, 600th of 682 in receiving yards, 605th of 657 in explosive catches (16+ yards).
Related
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Everything on this site starts with someone else's data, and we credit all of it. The projections, picks, rankings and tiers are our own math on top.
Where the data comes from
| Source | What we use | How often |
|---|---|---|
| CollegeFootballData.com, via the public cfbfastR files | Schedules, final scores, pregame Elo, play-by-play and box score stats, rosters | Usually posted Sunday or Monday morning after games |
| DraftKings lines (via The Odds API and CollegeFootballData.com) | The line and total on each game, and where each opened | Every morning, and before kickoffs Thursday to Saturday |
| Team logos and colors (ESPN's, via CollegeFootballData.com) | The logos on charts, game cards and team pages. They belong to the schools and are used only to identify the teams. | Preseason |
| SP+ by Bill Connelly (CFB Update) | Overall, offense, defense and special teams ratings | Weekly |
| PRIME (primecfb.com) | Net, offense, defense and special teams ratings, strength of schedule, strength of record | Weekly |
| AP Top 25 (via NCAA.com) | Rankings and points, including others receiving votes | Sunday afternoons |
| AFCA Coaches Poll (via Yahoo Sports, CBS Sports, SI) | Rankings and points, including others receiving votes | Sundays |
| 247Sports | Team talent composite, star counts, 2026 transfer portal rankings | Preseason |
| The NIL Standard | Estimated NIL roster values | Preseason |
| us-atlas (U.S. Census Bureau boundaries) | State shapes for the map | Once |
How we turn it into projections
- Projected score. Each team's SP+ offense, plus how far the opponent's SP+ defense is from average, plus special teams. The home team gets half of a 2.5-point home edge added and the visitor half subtracted.
- Win chance. The projected margin turned into a probability, assuming games usually land within about 14 points of the projection. A 0-point margin is 50%; 14 points is about 84%.
- The three ratings. SP+ is built from every play this season. PRIME is a possession-efficiency rating. Elo uses only final scores and carries over from year to year, with 55 Elo points of home edge.
- The numbers' pick. The team at least two of the three ratings favor, with our confidence the average of their three win chances for that team. On the game cards, a pick is a lock when all three favor the same team and the average win chance is 80% or more, a coin flip when it's under 55%, and a lean otherwise. Injuries can drop the tier: each key player out counts by what he does for his team (a starting quarterback is 2 points, the feature back or top receiver half a point, doubtful counts half), the other side's injuries offset, and 1 point drops a tier, 2 points two. The game page shows it as an injury alert. Nobody overrides the numbers' pick.
- CFB Charts Top 25. SP+, PRIME and strength of record, each converted to a common scale and averaged.
- Playoff picture. The 2026-27 rules: automatic bids for the ACC, Big Ten, Big 12 and SEC champions (the current conference leader stands in until the title games) and for the highest-ranked team from the American, Conference USA, MAC, Mountain West, Pac-12 or Sun Belt. Notre Dame is in if it ranks in the top 12. The rest are at-large teams by the chosen rating, and all 12 are seeded straight by that rating, so the top four get the byes. Once the committee's rankings are out (first release Tuesday, Nov. 3), they become the default ranking.
- Missing data. When a team's play-by-play is clearly incomplete (fewer than 45 offensive plays a game), we hide its offense stats instead of showing bad numbers.
Rushing yards here exclude sacks, so they run higher than official totals. Ranks are out of the 138 FBS teams.
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What the numbers on team pages, charts and head to head mean.
- SP+
- Bill Connelly's rating, built from play-by-play efficiency and explosiveness and adjusted for who each team played. The number is how many points better than an average FBS team a team is on a neutral field. SP+ 20 beats SP+ 10 by about 10.
- PRIME
- A rating built possession by possession: how well a team turns drives into points and keeps opponents from doing the same, adjusted for opponents. Zero is an average FBS team.
- Elo
- A results-only rating. Every team has a number, 1500 is average, and the winner takes points from the loser after every game. Beat a great team and you take a lot. Beat a bad one and you take a few. It carries part of last season over, so it's slow to catch a team that changed.
- Strength of record
- How impressive a record is, given who a team played: how many more games it won than an average team would have against the same schedule. It grades the resume. SP+ and PRIME grade how good the team is.
- Strength of schedule
- How hard a team's opponents have been so far.
- Opponent-adjusted
- Corrected for who a team played. Hanging 50 on an FCS team counts for less than hanging 30 on Georgia.
- EPA (expected points added)
- Every down, distance and spot on the field is worth some number of points on average. 1st and 10 at the opponent's 20 is worth a lot more than 3rd and 15 at your own 10. EPA is how much one play changed that number. A 50-yard bomb is a big plus. A pick-six is a very big minus.
- EPA per play
- A team's average EPA across all its plays. For an offense, above zero means it adds points and higher is better. For a defense, lower is better.
- Success rate
- The share of plays that keep an offense on schedule: half the yards needed on 1st down, 70% of them on 2nd, all of them on 3rd and 4th. A 4-yard run on 1st and 10 is a success. A 4-yard run on 3rd and 6 isn't.
- Explosive play rate
- The share of plays that go for a run of 12 or more yards or a completion of 16 or more.
- Yards per play
- Total yards divided by plays: runs, passes and sacks.
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- Record Explained: Coaching, Experience, Incoming talent, Pure luck and Toughness of Schedule. Where a team's wins came from. Every team starts as a .500 team. The record above or below .500 gets split four ways that add up to the real record: schedule (what an average team would win against that schedule), roster (the wins its talent and returning starters are worth on paper), coach (wins from playing better or worse than that roster) and luck (actual wins against the wins its SP+ says it should have). On team pages and in two charts.
- Schedule, Roster, Coach and Luck RECEIPTS
- The four parts of RECEIPTS. Schedule: what an average team would win against that schedule, minus .500. Roster: the extra wins from a roster this good on paper (247Sports talent and returning production). Coach: wins from playing better or worse than that roster should. Luck: actual wins against the wins SP+ expects. Recruiting rankings undersell the service academies, so their coaches get extra credit.
- Luck watch
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- The wins a team should have, adding up its win chance in every game it played. Winning more than that usually means a lot of close wins, and close wins are mostly luck.
- Talent composite and blue-chip ratio
- 247Sports' score for a roster, built from every player's recruiting rating, with the best players counting most. The blue-chip ratio is the share of the roster that were 4- or 5-star recruits.
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How the picks, tiers and projections work. The full method is on Sources and methods.
- Projected score
- Each team's SP+ offense, adjusted for how good the other team's defense is, plus special teams. The home team gets 2.5 points of home edge, split between the two scores.
- Win chance
- The projected margin turned into a percentage, assuming games usually land within about 14 points of the projection. A tie projection is 50%. A 14-point favorite is about 84%.
- The numbers' pick
- The team at least two of SP+, PRIME and Elo favor. The confidence is the average of their three win chances. Nobody overrides it.
- Lock, Lean, Coin flip and Stay away
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Every FBS team, player and game gets its own page, with national ranks, the ratings people argue about (SP+, PRIME and Elo) and charts you can share. The rivalry pages carry the series history. The tools let you build your own Top 25, your own 12-team playoff field and your own charts.
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- 12 teams, under the 2026-27 rules. Automatic bids go to the ACC, Big Ten, Big 12 and SEC champions, and to the highest-ranked team from the American, Conference USA, MAC, Mountain West, Pac-12 or Sun Belt. Until the title games, each conference's current leader stands in as its champion.
- Notre Dame is in if you rank it in your top 12. Everyone else is at-large.
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Projected scores come from SP+ offense, defense and special teams, plus 2.5 points for the home team. Cards also show DraftKings' line and total as facts: we pick winners, not bets. Open Details for the full read, or Head to head for every stat.
This week
Final scores against what we said before kickoff. The numbers' pick is the team at least two of SP+, PRIME and Elo favored. Ranked means in that week's AP poll. Open a game for the full preview as it stood going into the week.
Last week
All-time picks record
Straight-up picks: did the pick win? The numbers' pick is the team at least two of SP+, PRIME and Elo favor. The numbers' and SP+ picks start in Week 8; Elo picks go back to Week 1.
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Each column is that week's ranking. Arrows compare the latest poll to the week before. NR means not ranked.
Rankings come from cfbtrack.com. Week 1 is the preseason poll; each later week is the poll released before that week's games.
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SP+ vs. payroll is the average, across a conference's teams with an NIL valuation (positive means its teams play better than their payrolls predict). Blue-chip ratio is the share of all its rostered players who were 4- or 5-star recruits.
Ranks are national, out of 138 FBS teams. A top-10 team also counts toward the top 25 and top 40, and everyone outside the last cutoff counts as weak. Open a conference to see its teams.
Conference depth
Projected bracket
Seeds 1–4 get first-round byes. Seeds 5–8 host the first round.
The field and the bubble
The columns on the right show where each team would be seeded under the other ratings. A dash means out.
How the field is built
- 12 teams. Five get in automatically: the ACC, Big Ten, Big 12 and SEC champions, plus the highest-ranked team from the American, Conference USA, MAC, Mountain West, Pac-12 or Sun Belt (champion or not).
- Notre Dame is in if it ranks in the top 12.
- At-large. The remaining spots go to the highest-ranked teams left. If an automatic qualifier ranks outside the top 12, it takes the last at-large spot.
- Seeding follows the ranking, as it has since 2025. A conference champion isn't guaranteed a bye.
- Champions mid-season. "Current conference leader" uses the best conference record so far, with ties broken by the chosen rating. "Highest-rated team" picks the best-rated team in each conference instead.
- Composite averages SP+, PRIME and strength of record after putting each on a common scale.
- This is a projection from today's numbers. The real field is chosen by a committee on Dec. 6, after conference title games.
How we picked it
How we picked it
Three ratings look at a team in three different ways. The numbers' pick is the team at least two of them favor.
Where the game is won
Where the game is won
Each row puts one team's unit against the unit it faces, by national rank out of all FBS teams. An edge is a gap of 25 spots or more.
Injuries and availability
Statuses come from the conference availability reports and team news, as of the date shown. "Hasn't played" means a regular (the main passer, a quarter of the carries or 15% of the catches) with no pass, carry or catch in his team's last two games, from the play-by-play. That can be an injury, a benching or a suspension. Linemen and defenders don't show up in that check.
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Ratings: SP+ via CFB Update; PRIME via primecfb.com. Box and play stats computed from CollegeFootballData.com play data (via the public cfbfastR files), FBS games only for scoring. Rushing yards here exclude sacks, so they run higher than official totals. Ranks are out of 138 FBS teams.